The present invention relates to a compound design system in which an interactive drawing or drafting apparatus is directly connected to a complex design apparatus for generating an analysis model of mechanism parts according to drawings or drafts and producing complete drawings based on results of an analysis conducted on the analysis model.
In a conventional analysis input/output system, a system for inputting/outputting computer aided design (CAD) drawings created by a drawing apparatus (such as manufacturing and scheme drawings) is not directly coupled with an analysis system for the following reason. Namely, when the drawing system is linked with individual analysis systems, the overall system exceeds an appropriate size and hence cannot be properly used as a general-purpose system. To overcome this difficulty, data of CAD drawings is generally fed via files to the analysis input/output system to generate an analysis model based on the data. An example of this kind has been described in pages 141 to 148 of the "Computer-Aided Engineering Journal", October 1990, by D. M. A. Lee, et al. Specifically, in accordance with this method, a three-dimensional (3D) profile is produced according to three kinds of drawings such as a front view, a side view, and a plan or top view, thereby creating a 3D analysis robot model.
On the other hand, there has been known a method in which behavior of a cam mechanism is analyzed according to an equation of a contour outline of a cam representing a locus of a contact point between the cam and a following link subordinate thereto and a restraint condition of the link. An example of this method has been described in pages 42 to 44 of the "Proceedings of 68th Conference of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers", September 1990, Vol. E by Katsumi WATANABE, et al.
In addition, a method of and an apparatus for analyzing dynamic behavior of a link mechanism has been described in the JP-A-3-129476.